Monk Detained for “Goading” Self-Immolations

Sources tell VOA that Wangchen shouted slogans calling for the long life of the Dalai Lama and long life of Tibet.

More than 3,000 Tibetans and monks are reported to have gathered at the site of the self-immolation protest to recite prayers.

Sources say two trucks of Chinese armed police arrived and forcibly dispersed the gathered crowd and asked them to return to their homes. Wanchen Kyi’s body was cremated around midnight. She is survived by her father Sonam Tsering and mother Sermo, and two other siblings.

Self-immolations have historically only been effective in achieving political concessions when carried out under weak governments, but they have increased solidarity within parts of the Tibetan community, [Columbia University Tibet scholar Robert] Barnett said.

“It hasn’t been effective in getting any change in policy, but it has been effective in mobilizing sentiment within the Tibetan community inside Tibet,” he said.

The long lines of people going to pay respects and donate money to the families of people who have immolated are evidence of this, Barnett said. China’s new regulations aim to suppress this practice.

But Barnett said Tibetans, including the exiled government in India, are playing the “politics of sympathy”, a tactic that makes powerful symbolic statements, but does little to articulate coherent and urgent policy demands.

Lorang Konchok, a 40-year-old monk at the Kirti Monastery in Aba County, Sichuan, has goaded eight people to set themselves on fire, three of whom died, since 2009, said a police statement.

He acted on the instructions of the Dalai Lama and his followers, according to his confession and police investigation.

After a Kirti Monastery monk named Tapey self-immolated in February 2009, Lorang Konchok was contacted by some key figures with the media liaison team — a “Tibet independence” organization of the Dalai Lama group, and he continuously sent the latter information about incidents of self-immolation.

At the requests of the media liaison team, Lorang Konchok took advantage of his position and influence in the monastery and often encouraged others to self-immolate, telling local monks and followers that self-immolation was not against Buddhist doctrines and those who did it were “heroes.”